A Win for River Restoration
A team of scientists from eWater CRC based in Canberra and at Griffith University in Queensland has won the WaterSecure - Healthy Waterways Research Award for its work on Prioritisation of Catchment Scale River Restoration within Southeast Queensland (SEQ).
The work is part of a Queensland Government funded ‘proof of concept’ initiative designed to demonstrate that bringing together the best science, planning and on-ground implementation can significantly reduce pollutants entering Moreton Bay.
The team won the award for tools it developed to assist in tracking sediment as part of the four-year Healthy Country project designed to reduce sediments and nutrients leaving the priority catchments of Logan and Brenner Rivers and Lockyer Creek.
The scientists used the data to develop sediment budgets and restoration plans for each waterway - plans which will guide funding for on-ground works to rehabilitate the priority sub-catchments. The plans defined the major erosion processes and sources, and pinpointed the top ten sub-catchments for each area exporting sediment to the Logan and Bremer Rivers and Lockyer Creek.
In accepting the award team leader Prof Jon Olley said: “Moreton Bay is under serious threat. We have to fix the 24000 km of degraded rivers which drain into the Bay. We now have the techniques to target erosion control works. We know what needs to be done. What is required is the political will to provide the $500m required to fix the 24000 km of degraded rivers.
“This may sound like a lot of money but it is less than the cost of 10 km of freeway. Currently as a society we value 10 km of road more than 24000 km of river."
Prof Olley called on all levels of government to get behind the plan to protect the Bay and to start treating green infrastructure as they treat the nation’s hard infrastructure. “If we don’t we will lose the very reason people move to the Southeast: its natural environment,” he said.
WaterSecure CEO, Keith Davies, said the organisation was proud to sponsor the Research Award category.
“We believe that knowledge leads to better management of our water supplies,” he said.
Contacts
Sue Bushell, Publications and Media Manager eWater CRC 02 6201 2840; sue.bushell@ewatercrc.com.au
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